Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly insists on using wired earphones because she fears that Bluetooth pods represent a security ri...
Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly insists on using wired earphones because she fears that Bluetooth pods represent a security risk.
At a time when many users have moved on to the near invisible buds and pods, Harris is frequently to be seen conducting remote television interviews with a telltale cable dangling from her head.
And in a viral video clip showing the moment she spoke by phone to Joe Biden after they secured their 2020 election win, she has a tangle of white wires in her left hand.
Now former aides have explained that the reason is not some kind of retro chic, but concerns that someone could intercept her communications.
They told Politico that the vice president has long been careful about security and technology.
Vice President Kamala prefers using wired earphones for remote interviews and now former aides have explained why - she believes they are more secure than wireless connections
In a much shared clip of her congratulatory phone call with Joe Biden after their 2020 election victory was confirmed she can be seen with the tell-tale white wires in her hand
Harris can often be seen carrying a jumble of wires with her phone
Some said it was a prudent measure for someone handling classified information while others told the outlet it verged on the paranoid.
As well as using wired headphones to avoid Bluetooth, she also apparently prefers texting to email and does not allow her guests to wait in her office alone.
And a former aide said staff were told to have her visitors wait for her outside her office during her time as attorney general in California.
A request for comment on why the vice president prefers wired earphones went unanswered.
But Harris is not alone in the retro look.
Ccelebrities including Bella Hadid, Lily-Rose Depp and Zoë Kravitz have been spotted with corded earphones.
Fashion writers say the ubiquity of buds has led some trendsetters to look for something more distinctive.
When Liana Satenstein, a fashion writer at Vogue.com, saw Hadid with a wired headset in 2019 she described it as 'strangely luxurious.'
Cybersecurity experts say there may be something in the vice president's approach.
Although security has improved since Bluetooth was developed in the 1990s it still add an extra potential point of attack.
'If Kamala Harris is using wired earbuds, then the communications going between her phone and her ears can’t be intercepted there,' cybersecurity researcher and writer Kim Crawley told The Guardian.
'I would presume that Ms Harris is privy to a lot of top secret and classified information and that top secret and classified information could be going through her phone, so no I don’t think that’s overly paranoid.'
Other presidents have chafed at security restrictions on their phone use.
I am not allowed, for security reasons, to have an iPhone,' said President Barack in 2013 during a White House event.
Instead he was allowed only to use a Blackberry device, limited to communicating with 10 people.
But even that took a fight.
He was the first president in history to use email and he had to convince the National Security Agency to allow him to keep a mobile device in office.
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